


And Woe Is Us, Together

by kotaberry (chexas)



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 20:13:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1721111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chexas/pseuds/kotaberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simmons has a certain way of coping with the chaos of his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Woe Is Us, Together

_And we exhale_  
 _And we roll our eyes_  
 _And we do these things in unison_

Simmons had always been one to focus on the minor details, and his transformation into a cyborg only served to exacerbate this. Focusing on the bigger picture usually overwhelmed him and left him depressed. But he could easily surround himself with little things and then purposefully block out everything else.

This seemed to apply to all facets of his life. Sure, Simmons could look at himself as a whole and admit that he’s a monstrosity, a mess of pale, freckly skin and old, worn-out metallic parts. Or he could admire the shade of green in the iris of his one human eye, and he can admire his slender frame and the tone of muscles that he’d never thought he’d have, earned through years of running and fighting and surviving hell and back.

If he looked at his life altogether, all the years of abuse from a father that openly hated him and neglect from a mother who never cared, running from home to join the military with a hope to climb the ranks and finally make his father proud, only to wind up in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, serving as a plaything in a military project, and now being stranded on a planet on the edge of UNSC jurisdiction, it seems like it’s just one cruel joke after another. But Simmons instead takes life day by day, shutting out the past and keeping his future plans as short-term as possible. It’s much easier to worry about his next training session with his squad than it is to think about what’s going to happen once they finally get the hell out of this planet.

And then there’s Grif. Simmons could take a step back and see how awful their relationship is, how it’s carefully built around repression and denial, how they don’t fit together at all, how the entire thing implodes every so often and it ends with them spitting venom and cutting deeper with their words than two lovers ever should. There’s been plenty of occasions where fists have served the place of malicious insults, and there was one time in particular where Grif had to be pulled off of Simmons, and for a few seconds Simmons had lain there wondering if Grif would have killed him. There are never any apologies, nor heartfelt discussions, or anything even coming close to either of them putting their feelings out there.

Simmons could look at all of this and admit that they’re awful for each other, or he could decide to only see the smaller things. Like how they seem to fit together perfectly at night, when Grif’s arms are wrapped around him, and his face is buried in the crook of Grif’s neck. Or how they can seem to exchange an entire conversation just by glancing at each other, even when their helmets are on. Or how they’re completely comfortable just standing near each other, with no need for words to fill their conversations.

And when Simmons gained new cybernetic enhancements, he was able to notice even more. Like how Grif’s muscles are always the most relaxed when it’s just the two of them. Or how his breathing will slow down to match Simmons’ when they’re near each other. Or how sometimes, when someone says something idiotic, they’ll both sigh and roll their eyes in unison.

And it’s the little things like that that keep Simmons grounded.


End file.
